Pinnick Gales Pridgen: Pinnick Gales Pridgen

Blues-rock power trio debut with ex-Mars Volta drummer.

It remains a question as to why, despite the immense breakthrough example of Jimi Hendrix, there has never been a tremendous amount of African-American heavy rock.

Despite drawing extensively on the blues tradition, it’s remained a predominantly white preserve – perhaps because African-American music inclines towards the futuristic rather than the retrospective, as Hendrix himself did.

Pinnick Gales Pridgen feature King’s X’s dUg Pinnick, Thomas Pridgen, formerly of Mars Volta, and Eric Gale, who has played with Lauryn Hill. Their tastes are old-school, channelling the vocals of Cream’s Jack Bruce on Angels And Aliens for instance, and covering Sunshine Of Your Love.

However, as with Hendrix, their music is bruised with the feeling of life as suffered and lived – for example, on the politically fraught Hang On, Big Brother. Ultimately, they stand and fall by their groove and on Me And You particularly, they stand up well.